Protest vs. class-size $$$ grab
Smaller is not always better
A newly formed parents group blasted a unionbacked law that will limit public school classroom sizes — and could force the Big Apple to hire as many as 12,000 new teachers.
The Coalition for Class Size Equity is on the attack against Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers, saying it’s out to oppose the “negative consequences” of the earthshattering law, which was imposed on city schools after a major lobbying push by the teachers union.
“One-size-fits-all never works, one-size-fits-all doesn’t make sense anywhere,” said Deborah Alexander, executive director of the group. “Common sense is missing.”
The Queens resident, who has a child attending The Bronx HS of Science and another enrolling there in September, said many parents are not yet aware of “painful trade-offs” to comply with the law.
“You cannot create space where there is none,” Alexander told The Post. “You’re going to cause more harm than good.”
Hochul and lawmakers — under intense lobbying from the United Federation of Teachers — approved a law in 2022 requiring schools in New York City to slash classroom sizes across the board by 2027-28.
Under the law, by the deadline K-3 class sizes max out at 20 pupils, grades 4-8 are limited to 23 and grades 9-12 must be 25 or fewer.
Facing deadline
Forty percent of the schools must be in compliance in the 2024-25 school year.
But the parents group flunked Albany for drafting a universal law that hamstrings the nation’s largest public school system.
Alexander argued the reductions in class sizes should have been limited to needy students or lower grades instead of across the board.
The group says the law could:
▪ Reduce teaching quality in schools in low-income neighborhoods by requiring smaller classes and more instructors.
▪ Redirect funds from lowerto higher-income neighborhoods with higher enrollment and larger class sizes.
▪ Limit seats in popular zoned schools, creating a space crunch and forcing the busing of students to schools farther away.
▪ Curb access to gifted and talented programs, and potentially eliminate seats in selective high schools such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.
▪ Both Mayor Adams and Schools Chancellor David
Banks have slammed the law, painting it as a costly unfunded mandate imposed on the city — even as state lawmakers insist there’s adequate funding to comply.
“We’ve got to hire another 10,000 to 12,000 teachers in order for us to be in compliance and we are estimating that and [the Independent Budget Office] is estimating that it’ll cost close to 1 to 1.5 billion dollars in order for us to do that,” Banks said in February.
A UFT rep defended the law Tuesday, saying “smaller classes are a critical priority for tens of thousands of public school parents across the city.”